Home Country Excerpt

This excerpt is from the book, "Home Country," by Pulitzer Prize-winning Hoosier journalist Ernie Pyle. Pyle was the author of five books, all derivatives of his prolific syndicated newspaper columns. With Home Country, Pyle chronicles his travels throughout America recording interactions with the common people off backroads and remote areas, as well as in cities.
 
Pyle, syndicated by Scripps-Howard newspapers, became an acclaimed World War II correspondent, both in Europe and in the South Pacific during the last days of the conflict. Unfortunately, Pyle was killed by a machine gun ambush and was buried in Hawaii. He attended Indiana Universtiy, where Ernie Pyle Hall houses the School of Journalism. Home Country stems from columns Pyle wrote from 1935 to 1940. 
 
Attachment Ernie Pyle-Cannonball Baker contains an excerpt about the legendary Cannonball Baker, an American motorsports daredevil of the first half of the 20th Century. Baker was the only person to compete in both the original August 1909 FAM motorcycle races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well as an Indianapolis 500 in 1922. Pyle's interview was conducted as Baker approached 60 years of age. He lived to be 78. As a result, it is a folksy recollection of Baker's personality and his habits, such as eating four beef steaks a day and speaking with "booby prize" grammar. Still, Pyle is very complimentary and respectful of the man he calls, "Bake," and his achievements.
 
The second attachment (Ernie Pyle - Indy 500) is a whimsical assessment of the 1937 Indianapolis 500, which was won by Hoosier icon Wilbur Shaw.